Oyster Dome 1-5-14

It was a car full heading up Chuckanut Drive to the Oyster Dome Trail.  Not only Dave, Cedar and I but also Justus and Gretchen joined in the adventure.  It was a crystal clear sunny day... perfect for a hike with a view.  This first peek at the view is about 20 minutes or so into the hike and has a bench.  A great place for people with creaky knees to stop.

 

 The rest of the trail was a lot steeper than I remembered it, although that is probably because I slacked off this fall and was not prepared.  The elevation gain is pretty decent though... 1900 ft up from almost sea level.  Here Dave and Cedar are playing on a flatter part of the trail.

 

 And now we are at the top!  Just barely over 2000 feet, but such a gorgeous view of the San Juan Islands and the forest spread out below like toy trees.

Get out there with the ones you love and stretch those legs out!  : )

Skagit River 1-1-14

On New Year's Day Dave and I drove up the Skagit River hoping to see bald eagles in large numbers.  As it turns out, we only saw 3 or 4 total, but it was still worth the drive.  The Skagit is such a huge beautiful river. 

There is actually an eagle in this picture.

 

 Let me zoom in... see?

We drove up to Marblemount and went to the fish hatchery.  It wasn't open, but there is a little nature trail there that leads down a stream and to a branch or tributary of the Skagit.  There were coho and another kind of salmon, just the very last stragglers of the run coming up the little stream to the hatchery they were born to spawn.  The coho were bright red on their sides.

 

 Adventure Dog really enjoyed being able to stretch his legs and check out the scenery.

 

 

 So did Adventure Dave!

We talked to a man who was there steelhead fishing and he said the energy companies let their dams on the Skagit hold up too much water last winter and Fish and Wildlife asked them to release some of their water as the river was too low, but they refused until all the red tape had been cut through and they were officially told they had to.  They did, but the river had been too low and froze and thousands upon thousands of salmon eggs were destroyed.  It's reprehensible that knowing better they did nothing to alleviate a terrible situation and thereby made a vast impact on our Northwest ecology and economy that will be felt for years to come.

 

It was a very interesting and scenic trip to make and we were happy with our little adventure even though we didn't see a lot of eagles.